In Der Eben explain his Alto Adige wines

In Winemakers & Vineyards by Alessandro PepeLeave a Comment

 

Urban Plattner of In der Eben discusses their family traditions in wine making in the Alto Adige.

Transcript:
Here we are entering Valle Isarco valley.
So if you go ahead you arrive at Brenero.
Here we are already facing the other side a little bit, toward Bolzano.
You can even see the city of Bolzano.
So often the air will circulate above us.
So we do not really get that air here.
We have all the vineyards on the slopes.
We have three and a half hectares.
It is not a small plot of land really.
We are working on volcanic soil.
The soil profile is really great.
Poor soils with a lot of rocks
do not keep water well.
That is the reason why we usually have wines with pronounced tannins.
Our vines undergo stress.
This is also why grapes have such thick skins
which make grapes very concentrated, with not so much juice.
That is why I also think our wines need time to mature.
Pergola training method is used for all Schiava vines.
It is a classic method.
It is also sometimes used for Pinot Nero and Malvasia.
All other grapes are trained with Guyot training method.
These are the old vines.
These vines are more than 40 years old.
Schiava vines are usually old vines.
There is also a little bit of Merlot here. Then came Lagrein.
Schiava is the most typical grape of this area.
But it is actually also the name of the place.
The name is Sant'Anna, and it is also the same of our most important wine.
I took over in 2014 from my parents.
I implemented biodynamic methods,
but organic methods have always been used here.
My father started in 1990.
I like fresh, easy to drink wines.
In my opinion,
vines do not really start to overproduce fruit, if using biodynamic methods.
So one need to reduce quantity.
Vines produce a lot only if fertilized.
Or there is excessive irrigation.
One has to pick and discard some grapes
to avoid having too light wine.
In my opinion,
here we do not have to do this.
The first date we found was 1348.
We do not really know if this house was here already before that.
It is possible. It can also be that it was build around that time.
Anyhow it has almost 800 years old.
All our wines are aged in oak.
Slowly I would like to switch from small Tonneaux barrels
more towards bigger barrels.
Bigger barrels keep the wine better.
Smaller barrels allow the wine to mature faster.
But this, however, is not my goal.
I prefer to make wine that will last in time.
Two Schiava wines, are called Sant'Anna and Sant'Anna R.
Sant'Anna is 2015 vintage.
So for us it is a young wine, even if according to the rules it would in fact already be a Riserva wine.
Sant'Anna R is made with the selection of the grapes
from older vines that we have.
This wine ages for 2 more years in oak.
So 4 years in total.
So we will sell now the 2012 vintage.
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